Businessweek Archives

Tough Steps to Being the Best

Wanna win? Wanna be the best? Wanna become No. 1 at what you do? There is a way. It isn’t easy, but it is simple.

1. Never graduate from grunt work. Be willing to roll up your sleeves and dig in with your employees to finish the big task or complete the necessary project.

2. Never rest on your laurels. Don’t live off of your previous successes. Show your commitment by doing work each and every day.

3. Never stop learning. This means having an attitude that drives the individual to find out the why and how of things, rather than just the what.

4. Outwork everyone around you. The only place you’ll find "success" before "work" is in the dictionary. It is such a treat these days to come across someone who really knows how to work.

5. Be opinionated, but teachable—and always improving. In order to be decisive, you’ve got to be able to form an opinion on an issue, and then be willing to stand up for it. Concurrently, you’ve got to be humble enough at any time, to change that opinion if the facts change or become clearer. It is this balance between self-confidence and humility that often distinguishes a successful person from a mediocre one.

6. Serve others. The great philosopher and physician Albert Schweitzer said, "The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve."

7. Be better at the end of the day than when it started. Take life one step at a time. The goal is to break down your life into daily improvements.

In the end though, the key is to have a stick-to-it-ness that will test even the strongest discipline.